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The purpose of this paper is to showcase new research that seeks to provide guidance on the heterogeneity of treatment effects by utilizing the variance of demographic differences in state assessments. This study is focused on a simple randomized block design where students are nested within schools, and within each school students are randomized into treatment or control conditions. The data utilized come from several states: Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Carolina, West Virginia, and Wisconsin. From these states, the authors examined the difference between demographic groups in grades 3-8 in both math and reading scores. While the online resource will include all these grades and subjects, the authors present tables for 4th and 8th grade only for brevity. [SREE documents are structured abstracts of SREE conference symposium, panel, and paper or poster submissions.]

This paper presents a list of resources on what states are doing on the topic of Black male dropouts. These resources are taken from the report abstracts or summaries. This paper is a response to a request asking for these resources. (Contains 5 footnotes.)

David Treuer's debut novel, "Little" (1995), is set on a Minnesota reservation, centering around a dilapidated housing tract that its small community of residents call "Poverty." Aptly named both for the condition and background of the housing, this name is the first pointer to the type of multifaceted reading that the novel merits. This essay will sketch some of the various potential readerly interpretations of this novel's content, illustrating both culture-specific and "literary" angles, and looking directly at the relationship between Little's characterization and the narrative. This essay is not intended to challenge the fundamental tenet of Treuer's essay, but rather to offer a double-stranded reading that engages with the teasing of disclosure and refusal, negotiating those aspects of the novel that do invite a cultural reading, while illustrating the ways in which the novel's "artistry" works to close down such inclusions. The observations delineated in this paper will draw selectively on the work of Native American scholars, cultural anthropologists, and social commentators in an attempt to trace both those local "clues" toward cultural specificity and the broader thematic embrace--both literary and cultural--of the novel's subject matter. (Contains 48 endnotes.)

In "Toward a More Comprehensive Model of Teacher Pay"--a paper presented at the February 2008 National Center on Performance Incentives research to policy conference--Julia Koppich examines recent policy initiatives implementing new approaches to teacher pay. Her discussion focuses on four current initiatives: ProComp in Denver, Toledo Review and Alternative Compensation System (TRACS) in Toledo, Minneapolis's alternative compensation system, and New York City's new teacher pay plan. She describes commonalities among the four programs and challenges for future performance pay programs. [This research brief describes work published by the National Center on Performance Incentives in "Toward a More Comprehensive Model of Teacher Pay" by Julia Koppich, Working Paper 2008-06.]

This paper reports results from a study investigating the efficacy of a proportional problem-solving intervention, schema-based instruction (SBI), in seventh grade. Participants included 806 students with mathematical difficulties in problem solving (MD-PS) from an initial pool of 1,999 seventh grade students in a larger study. Teachers and their students in the larger study were randomly assigned to a SBI or control condition and teachers in both conditions then provided instruction on the topics of ratio, proportion, and percent. We found that students with MD-PS in SBI classrooms scored on average higher than their counterparts in control classrooms on a posttest and delayed-posttest administered nine weeks later. Given students' difficulties with proportional problem solving and the consequences of these difficulties, an important contribution of this research is the finding that when provided with appropriate instruction, students with MD-PS are capable of enhanced proportional problem solving performance. [At time of submission to ERIC this article was in press with "Journal of Learning Disabilities."]

The current study explored a possible continuum of spelling features that children receiving literacy instruction in Spanish might be expected to master in Grades 1-3. We administered a developmental spelling inventory representing nine distinct Spanish spelling features to 864 students in bilingual and dual language schools across the U.S. Findings revealed a distinct hierarchy of Spanish spelling features that move from reliance solely on sound-symbol correspondences (e.g., open syllables, closed syllables, blends, nasals, diphthongs) to word patterns (e.g., inconsistent consonants and rule-based consonants) and finally to meaning units (e.g., affixes and roots).

We investigated the latent factor structure of the "Phonological Awareness Literacy Screening for Kindergarteners" in Spanish ("PALS español K"). Participants included 590 Spanish-speaking, public-school kindergarteners from five states. Three theoretically-guided factor structures were measured and tested with one half of our sample using confirmatory factor analytic (CFA) methods. We then replicated the best fitting model with the second half of our sample and used multigroup CFA (MGCFA) to test for the model's configural and metric invariance. MGCFA revealed that PALS español K exhibited measurement invariance when comparing populations of boys and girls. Our results support the educational utility of PALS español K as a tool for assessing important reading constructs and informing early interventions across gender groups with Spanish-speaking students.

Since the passage of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (2002), there has been increased interest in using student achievement data (through standardized tests) to evaluate teacher effectiveness. Two U.S. Department of Education secretaries, Secretary Spellings and Secretary Duncan, have expressed interest in growth models and the need to improve the way teacher performance is evaluated. At the same time, there has been interest in creating longitudinal data systems so that student growth can be more accurately measured. The combined push for improvements in student assessments, teacher evaluation, and longitudinal student databases has led to the current educational agenda that lauds those systems that link student achievement to individual teachers. This paper describes four major value-added models (VAMs), concerns with VAMs as the "sole measure" of teacher effectiveness, some district and state examples, and other resources related to the issue of teacher effectiveness. (Contains 3 tables, 3 footnotes and 97 resources.)

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to identify the perceptions that extension educators in the North Central region of the United States hold regarding selected educational strategies pertaining to livestock waste management education. Livestock waste management education has been recognized as one of extension's major initiatives in the United States. County extension educators' perceptions regarding the educational strategies for livestock waste management are lacking in the literature. Most importantly, how do perceptions of extension educators in the region influence the selection of teaching methods and tools for educating those responsible for livestock waste management? Design/methodology/approach: The authors developed and utilized a questionnaire with a Chronbach's alpha 0.75 mailed to 360 randomly selected extension educators from the North Central region. The response rate was 55.8% based on a total of 201 completed survey questionnaires. Early and late responses were compared using independent samples T-test. Analyzed data was summarized as the descriptive statistics of means, standard deviations and percentages of all variables of interest from the study and presented as tables. Findings: Extension educators who participated in this study were predominantly white males with a mean age of 47.2 years. The majority (68.2%) of respondents had agriculture and natural resources as their area of extension responsibilities. Respondents had positive perceptions regarding selected teaching methods and tools and believe that the teaching methods of demonstrations, individualized instruction, discussion, lecture-discussion and field days are effective for livestock waste management education. Very high intercorrelation result (r=0.706) exist between perceptions regarding the effectiveness of teaching methods and the effectiveness of teaching tools. Practical Implications: Extension educators' positive perceptions regarding selected teaching methods and tools have implications for in-service educational programming and staff development for extension educators in the North Central region to enhance their self-efficacy and improve self-confidence in the use of educational strategies for livestock waste management education. Originality/value: This paper is original and makes a compelling case for in-service training and professional development for extension educators in the North Central region.

The changing market for doctorally prepared workers led one institution to examine its overall approach to defining and supporting professional doctorates. After a review of existing scholarship and internal practices, a white paper was created to capture the various ways that these degrees can be distinguished from the academic doctorate (PhD) at this university. This article summarizes its key conclusions in areas such as relationship to the masters, program goals and foci, research training, the doctoral capstone, and faculty selection. Ways that these recommendations have begun to effect policies and practices at this particular institution are also highlighted, especially program development and evaluation.

The authors argue that a recently proposed Minnesota policy for implementing full-cost tuition in selected practitioner master's degree programs in state institutions is counterproductive. The proposed policy is examined as a case study of probable supply and demand effects on student enrollments and institutional vitality. (Author/MSE)